Amy Lerman, Member of the Firm in the Health Care & Life Sciences practice, in the firm’s Washington, DC, office, was quoted in Part B News, in “Implement 6 Tips to Manage Telehealth Compliance Risks,” by Julia Kyles. (Read the full version – subscription required.)

Following is an excerpt:

Your practice should check its telehealth claims against the information in the recent data brief on telehealth services, health care attorneys advise. The Sept. 2 report from the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG), “Medicare Telehealth Services During the First Year of the Pandemic: Program Integrity Risks,” contains findings and program integrity measures for telehealth services. …

Here are six steps to take when you review your practice’s telehealth claims:

1. Read the data brief. “The OIG data brief is a useful compliance roadmap for providers, and one that should inspire both providers and telemedicine companies to take a closer look at internal coding, billing, auditing and monitoring practices, which serve as important checks and balances in any health care organization,” says Amy Lerman, member of the firm with Epstein Becker Green in Washington, D.C. For example, the brief includes seven program integrity measures that the OIG created for telehealth services (PBN 9/26/22). …

4. Conduct a thorough analysis into what caused the error. “Secondarily, the organization should conduct a root cause analysis to determine whether any bigger picture solutions … need to be implemented,” Lerman says. Those solutions could include better training, improving the practice’s coding and billing resources, and correcting behavior that could be fraudulent.

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